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ROSS Brawn, team principal of Honda Racing F1, is understood to
be in advanced negotiations with a prospective buyer regarding a
takeover of the company.

A well-placed source said Brawn should be in a position to
confirm whether a deal has been done "by the end of the
weekend".

The takeover would result in the team's annual budget being cut
by at least two-thirds, to £50 million ($A114 million), which
would necessarily mean a sizeable reduction in the 700-strong staff
at Honda Racing's headquarters in Northamptonshire.

There is speculation the buyer may be Dave Richards, chairman of
Prodrive, which was brought in to run the BAR team in 2001.
Richards was made team principal, but was replaced by Prodrive's
then managing director, Nick Fry, when BAR was taken over by Honda
in 2004.

Fry is now the CEO of Honda Racing, although it is unlikely he
would stay were Richards to be successful in his bid.

Richards has tried previously to start a formula one team, with
Prodrive, and it was even officially entered for the 2008
championship before pulling out last year.

Any takeover would be good news for Jenson Button, the British
driver who suddenly found himself without a race seat in the wake
of Honda's confirmation it was pulling the plug on its formula one
enterprise.

"It came as much of a shock to me as everyone else, and the
first couple of hours were the most painful," Button said. "But
after that, I thought, 'What's the point of being down and trying
to look at every reason for it?'

"We need to stay positive in ourselves, and as one team, because
if we're not, then who is going to be interested in taking us
over?"

As speculation mounted yesterday that other manufacturers were
set to follow Honda's lead, Toyota settled a few paddock nerves by
releasing a statement insisting it was "committed to succeeding in
formula one".

Nevertheless, the current uncertainty surrounding the future of
the sport gave FIA president Max Mosley, who has long championed
the need to reduce spending drastically, all the ammunition he
needed to reinforce his message.

In an open letter to the Formula One Teams Association, Mosley
revealed that the FIA was now in exclusive talks with engine
supplier Cosworth, along with Xtrac and Ricardo (XR) for the use of
transmissions, which could result in an annual engine and
transmission cost of less than £6 million (S13.7 million) from
2010.

The use of standardised engines has split the formula one teams
down the middle, with big-budget manufacturers such as Ferrari and
Toyota threatening to quit the sport if they are imposed. But that
is exactly what Mosley said he would do from 2010 unless teams got
behind him.

"This is a watershed," Mosley said. "It is very likely we will
lose another manufacturer or two unless we demonstrate to them that
expenditure has got to cease. It's too late for 2009 
although the teams are making a big effort to cut costs. But I'm
talking about a budget of 20 per cent of what it is now 
£30-£40 million should be competitive.

"If push comes to shove, we'll say, 'Those are the rules, here's
the entry form. If you don't like it then you can leave.' "

"The trouble is, the teams are basically run by technicians who
should probably be at home playing with their PlayStations rather
than spending fortunes to win races," Eccelstone said.

The final word in put-downs went to Mosley, who dismissed as
irrelevant one question about Ecclestone's controversial new medals
system. He said: "Imagine we're all on an ocean liner and we're
sinking, and people are talking about the colour of wallpaper in
their cabin whereas anybody sensible would be looking for a seat on
a lifeboat."
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

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